I think i might get more relevant advices at lv3 forum since most of you have passed level 2 exam. my question is how quantitative was the lv 2 exam? i thought lv1 was definitely not as quantitative as i thought, is lv2 the same? I just finished a question on schweser notes that took me 5 minutes to calculate, is that common in the actual exam? I understand most of you have other things i mind, thank you if you take the time to comment.
(and he insults us)… MOST of you would have passed Level 2 exam… you have 18 minutes per item set. so figure on about 10 mins reading, 6 mins answering and 2 mins left over. lots of strategies suggested - read questions first to form a hook as to what is being asked. (need to watch out for information provided later that might be relevant to the question, or even extraneous material…) OR read passage first - then look at questions… (you might end up reading a lot of irrelevant stuff) whichever way you go - remember mostly that questions are asked in the order of presentation of the material in the vignette.
If you need to use the restroom, hold it in.
at the end simply ask the proctor for my time…a little known secret is they actually grant it if you ask nicely enough
The thing is, there are plenty of people over at the Level 2 forum that have taken the Level 2 exam before. Those of us in this forum have mostly purged that whole experience from our brain a long time ago. Good luck.
Imho, L2 candidates need confidence, or even some degree of overconfidence. L3 candidates need strategy, whichever works. Studying hard for L3 is not enough.
To answer your question: The L2 exam at times is quite qualitative, one part of the exam I think if did 25 questions and picked up my calculator 2 times. The thing is that there are some long calcs in the exam and you have to know how to do them quickly. I spent allot of time not only memorizing formulas but memorizing exactly what keystrokes to hit on my calculator, and I use the save function allot especially on derivatives. I did many of the EOC’s and Schweser Mock exam questions over and over and over on my calculator to make sure: 1) I did not make dumb mistakes, 2) So I could get these problems done fast. For me I had to run the H model, Swaps, FRA Payoffs, Cash and carry, Real Estate Value, # of shares for a VC Deal, 2 stock portfolio Std Dev a ton of times so I could bang it out fast. This was the only thing I think the Q-bank was good for. So yes you better be good at both.
go away